Free new exhibit explores the long journey to voting rights for New Orleans women
NEW ORLEANS — When passed in 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution served as the crowning achievement of a decades-long struggle by women across the nation to be part of the democratic process. Although divided by race, class and political strategy, Black and white women in New Orleans played a significant role in the women’s suffrage movement. The new exhibition “Yet She Is Advancing: New Orleans Women and the Right to Vote, 1878–1970,” opening April 28 at The Historic New Orleans Collection (THNOC), tracks those voters’ challenge to overcome their status as second-class citizens.
In the exhibition, visitors will learn that the pursuit of voting rights for New Orleans women did not end in 1920. The federal amendment granted all women the right to vote, but as many white women began going to the polls and increasing their political participation in segregation-era New Orleans, African American women continued to fight for access to the ballot. From paying their poll taxes to organizing voter registration drives, Black women challenged their marginalized standing up to and through the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Expanding on a 2020 virtual exhibition created during the pandemic, the exhibition tells a decades-long story through objects, images, documents and interactive displays—and through the words of the New Orleans women who for nearly 100 years persisted in their struggle to obtain the vote.
“In this exhibition, visitors will learn the stories of early suffragists Caroline Merrick and Sylvanie Williams, NAACP Secretary Deborah Johnson Guidry, League of Women Voters of New Orleans founder Martha Gilmore Robinson, and civil rights activists Katie E. Whickam and Sybil Morial,” said Curator Elizabeth Neidenbach. “Through the determination of women like these and many others, the nation’s democratic ideals were advanced in New Orleans. Among their legacies is the inspiration they provided to generations of political activists, here and elsewhere.”
“Yet She Is Advancing” is sponsored by WDSU-TV and presented in collaboration with the Tate, Etienne & Prevost (TEP) Interpretive Center and the League of Women Voters New Orleans.
On view on the second level of THNOC’s Tricentennial Wing at 520 Royal St. from April 28 to Nov. 5, 2023, “Yet She Is Advancing” will serve as a companion exhibition to “American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith” from the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. Examining the continuing evolution of America’s experiment in a government “of, by, and for the people,” “American Democracy” will be on view on the first and third levels of the Tricentennial Wing from June 17 to Oct. 8, 2023.
Both exhibitions will be supported by an array of public programs. Admission is free. Advance reservations are recommended. For more information and to reserve tickets, visit hnoc.org.
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About The Historic New Orleans Collection
Founded in 1966, The Historic New Orleans Collection is a museum, research center and publisher dedicated to the stewardship of the history and culture of New Orleans and the Gulf South. For more information, visit www.hnoc.org, call (504) 523-4662, or follow THNOC on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.